Chapter 3

It wasn't enough that they left me on the street to be scorned and cursed; those sons of bitches dragged me back to the original basement like a stinking bag of garbage and locked me behind the heavy iron door.

Why not just shoot me in the head? Because in Samantha's twisted vanity, letting a "useless ex-boyfriend" like me linger in a dark, damp corner would satisfy her superior pleasure more than killing me outright.

But I didn't care how much the chains hurt my wrists, because deep in my retina, the gray League of Legends system panel was slowly restarting at a rate of 1%...2%.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe it was the evening of the next day, when suddenly a violent shaking sound came from the floor above the basement.

Then came the sound of a vase shattering and hysterical cursing, so loud that even the iron gate couldn't stop it.

"This is the 'absolute power' you promised me?!" It was Samantha's signature shrill voice, filled with barely concealed terror. "Not only did you fail to clear the zombies from Warehouse C, you almost killed the leader's elite squad! Now the whole base is saying we're complete liars!"

"Shut up, Samantha! How can you blame me?!" Karl's furious roar carried clearly through the ventilation duct to my ears. "That damn game ability is a complete rip-off! I absorbed the core, but the power is like a rusty water pipe, less than a tenth of the strength that useless guy used before! What's worse, this thing can't grow at all. No matter how many zombies I kill, I don't feel the slightest improvement!"

I couldn't help but let out a cold laugh in the darkness.

That stupid pig! Does he really think that by taking away a crystal core, he can become the ruler of Summoner's Rift?

His barren mind had no idea what passive stacking or equipment formation meant, let alone the fact that without the support of a system, those skills were lifeless stagnant water in his hands.

“What’s the point of saying all this now!” Samantha’s voice was already trembling with tears. “Chief Brad is furious! He thinks we’re making a fool of him! I just received intelligence that he’s leading a law enforcement team toward the villa.”

Ten minutes! If we don't give him a satisfactory explanation in ten minutes, he'll definitely throw our whole family over the wall to feed those walking corpses!

The lie is about to be exposed; death is knocking at the door.

The ex-girlfriend's family's pipe dream was about to vanish in less than 24 hours.

Listening to those idiots above, pacing around like ants on a hot plate with nowhere to turn, I felt a morbid sense of pleasure welling up inside me.

Moreover, I could clearly feel that the system restart progress bar had soared to 99%.

Just then, a very faint metallic clicking sound came from the keyhole of the heavy iron door to the basement.

I managed to lift my heavy eyelids.

The lock was pried open with great difficulty, and the rusty hinges let out a muffled groan.

A faint ray of light slipped in through the crack in the door, followed by a petite figure covered in mud.

“Chloe?” I managed to squeeze out an incredulous gasp from my dry throat.

"Shh, Arthur, don't speak, I'll take you away." Chloe bit her lip, pulled a pair of wire cutters from somewhere in her boot, and ran with all her might toward the chains binding me.

However, Murphy's Law remains the eternal truth of this absurd world—if you worry about something happening, it will happen.

"Chloe, move! Behind us!" I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine and shouted.

"Bang!" Another security door leading to the basement was kicked open. Carl and Samantha stood at the top of the stairs, their faces contorted with rage.

They clearly wanted to vent their anger on me, the "culprit," before the leader could break down the door, but they didn't expect to run into Chloe, who was trying to save people.

"So it was you, you shameless little bitch!" Samantha screamed as if she had grasped at a straw. "Karl, it must have been her! She's the one who destroyed the power crystal! Kill her and then go and claim credit with Chief Brad!"

"What a disgusting pair of lovesick fools." Karl's features were contorted with panic and rage. He casually pulled a half-meter-long machete from the wall and strode up the steps toward Chloe. "Since you love this piece of trash so much, then I'll take pity on you and send you to hell to wait for him!"

"Chloe! Run!" I struggled frantically against the chains, my wrists bleeding profusely from the tightness.

But Chloe didn't back down. She threw down the wire cutters and pulled a rusty meat cleaver from behind her waist. Her slender body stood firmly in front of me, like a mother leopard protecting her cubs, staring intently at Karl.

“If you want to touch him, you’ll have to step over my dead body first,” she said, emphasizing each word.

Karl grinned maliciously, raised his machete high, and with a deadly whoosh, brought it down hard on Chloe's unsuspecting head!

"Ding! System upgrade complete, deadly threat detected. Counterattack Protocol activated, all heroes' ultimate skills unlocked and cooldown complete!"